The internet of things is still putting us all at risk

Leon Hitchens

3 years ago

The internet of things has taken the technology world by storm, and for a good reason. Controlling light bulbs, A/C, and even automated pet feeders from anywhere you have access to your phone is not only attractive but also convenient. The internet of things has become a house product with there being whole sections in BestBuy, Home Depot, and Lowes.

These internet-connected devices are convenient and make our lives easier, but they come with some flaws. Petnet feeders, which dispense food based upon a schedule you set on your phone, but because of the service having an outage your animals went without food.

spend $150 on a fancy pet feeder that doesn’t feed your cat when their servers are offline what a great design pic.twitter.com/ZXMiGuWNFE

These internet connect devices have seen security flaws, and outages but their biggest issues are when the internet goes out they don’t have a fallback plan. Some companies are working on getting local control, so when the internet drops out, or a service outage happens you can still control your lights or pet feeder.

Other outages have occurred, with Nest thermostats having an outage that affected them. Of course, Nest thermostats can still be controlled via the device, but the learning and other smart features were offline. While the Nest outage was minor, there could be significant more severe outages as internet connected devices perfoliate into every part of our lives. There are smart fridges, smart ovens, connected pregnancy tests, and much much more. The more devices mean more security risk and more services that could have outages.

I have connected lights and other products, but when the services go out behind them, I find myself stuck without lights or being to control my A/C. Tell us in the comments below what devices connected to the internet you have, and what you think about the Petnet service outage affecting pets around the world!